Pin for artificial teeth



PIN FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH Filed May 13, 1952 IN V EN TOR.

2 A TTORNEYS.

Patented Nov. 21, 1933 UNITED STATES 1,936,333 PIN FOR ARTIFICIAL TEETH Frederick Maulen,

East Orange, N.

J., assignor to Baker & Company, Inc., Newark, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application May 13, 1932. Serial No. 611,019

4 Claims.

to backings.

5 Such pins usually include a body or core of a strong relatively inexpenive metal which will withstand soldering and the strains imposed on an artificial tooth, for example, nickel or an alloy. It is impracticable to use a pin formed 1. wholly of such metals because these metals easily and quickly oxidize or corrode, especially under the action of fluids in the mouth, which might render soldering difficult if not impossible and cause loosening of the pin in a tooth or a backing.

Therefore it has been the practice to coat the body or core with a layer of substantially noncorrosive metal of considerable thickness which will also withstand soldering temperatures, such coating protecting the body of the pin from the corrosive action of fluids in the mouth. Gold is generally used for this coating, but the coating must be so thick to prevent corrosion as to make the pin quite expensive. Gold is not sufi'iciently strong for use alone in such pins, and especially is too expensive; in fact gold is so expensive that probably it would not be used at all for the purpose if a corrosion-resisting coating were not required on the nickel body of the pins.

One object of my invention is to provide a tooth pin of the general character described embodying novel and improved features of construction which shall have the equivalent or superior corrosion-resisting qualities and strength and at the same time shall be considerably less expensive than the known pins.

Another object is to provide having a core or body of nickel inexpensive metal, and one or more coatings or layers of precious metals or alloys thereof which will resist corrosion under influence of oral fluids, withstand soldering temperatures and are less expensive than gold, said layers being coated with an outside layer of gold, whereby it shall be possible to use a thinner layer of gold than 4 has been used heretofore and to provide a pin having corrosion-resisting qualities equivalent or superior to those of known pins, and at less cost.

Other objects of my invention are to provide a tooth pin having a core of nickel or other suit able metal, and a plurality of coating layers of non-corrosive or corrosion-resisting precious metals the corrosion-resisting qualities of which ,are successively greater from the inner layer to the outer layer.

I have found that palladium, and certain alloys such a tooth pin or other suitable peratures are low, may be used to form the layer or layers between the core and the outer layer 60 of gold. These metals and alloys are less expensive than gold and they serve as a buffer between the easily oxidizable surface of the core and the outer layer of gold which accordingly may be very thin or skin-like.

Therefore other objects of the invention are to provide a tooth pin comprising a core of nickel or other suitable metal having a coating of one or more inner layers of palladium or certain alloys thereof with other metals, or a layer of silver, and a thin outer layer of gold; and to obtain other advantages and results as will be brought out by the following description.

Referring to the accompanying drawing, in which corresponding and like parts are designated throughout the several views by the same reference characters,

Figure l is a transverse vertical sectional view through an artificial tooth facing, showing a tooth pin embodying my invention therein;

Figure 2 is an elevation of the lingual side or the tooth showing the pins in end elevation;

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional elevation of one of the pins;

Figure 4 is a sectional elevation through a piece of wire from which the pin is formed, and

Figure 5 is a transverse vertical sectional view, on the line 55 of Figure 3.

Specifically describing the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the reference character A designates a porcelain tooth of known construction, and B designates a pin embodying my invention which is secured at one end in an anchor ring C which is embedded in the tooth. The outer extremity of the pin has a head D as usual for attaching the pin to a tooth backing.

Such pins are usually made of lengths of Wire, the heads D being formed by swaging or upsetting one end of the wire. It is necessary that the exterior surface of the pin be substantially non-corrosive or corrosion-resisting and it is also necessary that the pin be formed of such metal as will provide the necessary strength and withstand the usual soldering temperatures; and, of course, it is desirable that the pins be as inexpensive as possible. Accordingly, pins of this character are usually formed with a body or core 1 of a suitable relatively inexpensive base metal, for example nickel, andbecause the base metal easily and quickly corrodes, especially under the 110 destructive action of acids in the mouth, it is the general practice to coat the core with a noncorrosive or-corrosion-resisting layer, which is usually gold. It is necessary that this corrosionresisting layer be of considerable thickness in order to adequately protect the core from corrosion, and when the layer is made of gold, the pin is expensive. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the coating layer may be applied in any suitable manner.

In accordance wth the invention, the core 1 is provided with a plurality of coating layers of different corrosion-resisting metals which will also withstand soldering temperatures, and preferably the outer layer is of gold and the inner layers are of some less expensive precious metals. The inner layers may be for example palladium, or an alloy of palladium and gold, or an alloy of palladium and silver, or an alloy of palladium, gold and silver, and may even be silver alone where the soldering temperatures are low. Obviously, other suitable corrosion-resisting metals may be used instead of palladium or silver, or alloys of palladium or silver with other metals.

In the drawing, the reference character 2 designates an inner layer of corrosion-resisting metal, for example palladium, and 3 designates the outer layer of corrosion-resisting metal. The inner layer may be thicker than the outer layer, and therefore the outer layer may be thinner than the coating layer of gold which has been used heretofore in such tooth pins, the inner layer serving as a buffer between the core and the outer layer which is usually gold.

In accordance with the invention, the metal of the inner layer 2 may have a corrosion-resisting quality less than that of gold, and the thickness thereof may be varied as required to provide the desirable corrosion-resisting effect. Also, obviously the number of layers or coatings may be varied as desired, and while it is desirable that gold be the outer layer, such is not necessary to the provision of a satisfactory tooth pin.

From the foregoing, it will be understood that with my invention a non-corrosive wire is provided, particularly for use in making pins for artificial teeth, which has corrosion-resisting qualities and strength equal or superior to the respective corrosion-resisting qualities and strength of known pins or non-corrosive wire, and at less cost, and the external appearance of the wire of the pins may be identical with that of the highly desirable rich color of known gold covered wire or pins.

With my invention 1 can make the gold outer coating very thin and utilize a heavier bufier coating of palladium, or the like, which, particularly because palladium is less expensive and has a lower specific gravity than gold, enables me to provide a pin or wire equivalent or superior to :nown gold covered pins or wire at much less cos Various modifications in the relative arrangement of the layers of corrosion-resisting metals, and various other metals than those mentioned, may be utilized without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention, and therefore I do not desire to be understood as limiting myself in the construction and use of the invention except as required by the following claims when construed in the light of the prior art.

The term "precious metal as used in this specification and the appended claims is intend-400 ed to include all of the precious metals and precious metal alloys hereinbefore set forth and their equivalents for the purpose specified. The term corrosion resisting" means capable of resisting corrosion or susceptible to negligible cor- 05 rosion, under the action of oral fluids.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim is:

l. A tooth pin comprising a core of metal having a plurality of coating layers of different 1 corrosion-resisting precious metals.

2. A tooth pin comprising a core of metal having an outer thin coating layer of gold, and a coating layer of different corrosion-resisting precious metal between said layer of gold and 5 said core.

3. A tooth pin comprising a core of metal having an inner coating layer of palladium, and an outer coating layer of gold.

4. A tooth pin comprising a core of metal having an inner coating layer of silver and an outer coating layer of gold.

FREDERICK MAULEN. 

